RAMATHAÏM ZOPHIM AND RACHEL'S SEPULCHRE. THOUGH the attention of travellers and Biblical scholars has been often directed to the short route of Saul after his first interview with Samuel, it has never yet been satisfactorily traced. The tomb of Rachel which occurs in it, cannot, notwithstanding the greatest ingenuity, be brought into the line of travel without taking an improbable circuit, or violating other important conditions of the narrative. The latest attempt to solve this remarkable problem by Dr. Robinson of America, one of the most eminent Biblical scholars of the day, who himself travelled the region in question, with the greatest care, has failed to throw any light on the passage, and, if we are rightly informed, his solution has since failed to satisfy even himself. In the absence of the geographical data still required to elucidate the subject, we would propose to the readers (of this Journal) the following hypothesis, which ventures on a new view of the difficulty, and, if it does not loose the knot, at least attempts to cut it. When Saul was anointed by Samuel at Ramah, and could as yet scarcely believe the truth of the surprising and unsuitable dignity conferred upon him, the prophet gave him at his departure, as tokens of the divine intentions towards him, certain singular events that would befal him on the way as he returned home. (1.) By Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah, he would find two men who would tell him that the asses were found. (2.) Proceeding on, he would next come to the plain (or rather oak) of Tabor, where three men would meet him going up to God to Bethel, carrying gifts, from whom he would receive two loaves. (3.) After that he would come to the hill of God, where was the garrison of the Philistines, and when he was come thither to the city he would encounter a company of prophets coming down from the high-place prophesying, on meeting whom he would himself begin to prophesy also (1 Sam. x. 2-7). Such is the account given of Saul's journey; and it is evident that to trace its course, three points require to be ascertained, Ramah or Ramathaïm Zophim, the place where the prophet Samuel resided-Rachel's sepulchre which is passed on the way-and the place to which Saul was proceeding. As to the last of these, the place of Saul's abode, there is little or no dispute. It is admitted on all hands that it was Gibeah, which in the sequel is mentioned as his home (1 Sam. x. 26). Here he is found soon after this coming in from the field after the herd nerd as the messengers of Jabesh-Gilead were beseeching succour against Nahash king of the Ammonites (1 Sam. xi. 5). Under the names of Gibeah of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamina it is frequently mentioned as the place of his residence. The town of Zela [], in which was the sepulchre of Kish, is unknown; as, however, it is classed in Joshua's list of the towns of Benjamin (comp. Josh. xviii. 21-28 with 2 Sam. xxi. 14) along with Gibeah and Jebus, it is probable that it was situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of these places, and consequently lay in the southern part of the tribe. It is not, however, necessary to suppose that because Zela' contained the family-sepulchre it was therefore the place of Kish's residence, since he might be buried with his fathers though residing elsewhere, just as we afterwards find that the bones of Saul and Jonathan were taken thither though they resided at Gibeah. Nor must Zela' be confounded with the place Zelzah at Rachel's sepulchre, as has too frequently been done. Between y Zela and ny Zelzah, there is no affinity—the former signifying a rib or side, and the latter a shade or rejoicing, so that all theories resting upon their supposed identity fall to the ground. Gibeah is now clearly identified by Dr. Robinson with the place called Tuleil el Fül, about three miles to the north of Jerusalem, where there are remains of an ancient structure upon the summit of a considerable hill, at the western base of which, directly upon the great highway northward from Jerusalem, are extensive substructions of an ancient town. The name Gibeah seems to have indicated a fortified eminence, like Dun and Burg in other languages, and it was doubtless on this account that, in the days of the Judges, this place withstood so long the combined assault of the tribes, and that Saul afterwards made it the capital of his kingdom. Where next was Ramah, the birthplace and abode of Samuel? It has not yet been ascertained; but from the account given of Saul's wanderings in search of his asses, its locale may be somewhat nearly inferred. He passed through Mount Ephraïm, and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they found them not: then they passed through the land of Shalim, and there they were not: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not. And when they were come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come let us return, etc. . . . And he said unto him, Behold, there is in this city a man a We are not sure, however, that a comparison of passages would not prove Gibeah of Benjamin and Geba to be the same place. b Narrative of a Mission to the Jews, Note, p. 199. Athenæum, Aug. 1844. of of God,' etc.... (1 Sam. ix. 4-6.) From this itinerary it would seem that they had first gone in the direction of the mountainous district to the north and west of Gibeah; for the great mountainridge which extends from the valley of Jezreel south through the centre of the land, bore the name of Ephraim not only within the borders of that tribe, but even when it passed into the tribe of Benjamin it still continued to be called Mount Ephraim (comp. Jud. iv. 5 and xviii. 12, 13, with Josh. xviii. 14, 15). In this direction, therefore, and stretching away perhaps to the western boundary of the tribe of Benjamin, are we to look for the land of Shalisha, a name which the district may perhaps have owed, as the term imports, to the three great cities of the Gibeonites belonging to Benjamin-Gibeon, Beeroth, and Chephira, that anciently ruled over this tract of country. Having traversed the western hilly district of Benjamin in vain, Saul and his attendant now appear to have directed their steps eastward, to search the country around and to the north of Michmash which is called the land of Shual' [y] (1 Sam. xiii. 17), and here in the plural 'the land of Sha'alim' [D], that is, as the etymology indicates, 'the land of jackals.' Having thus passed through Mount Ephraim, first the land of Shalisha in the west and now the land of Shâalim in the east, they have actually 'passed through the land of the Benjamites,' and are now upon the northern border about to enter the tribe of Ephraim. Accordingly advancing northward, they next 'come to the land of Zuph.' This district was the native place of Samuel, from whose ancestor Zuph it appears to have acquired its name, and from whom also the town in it was called Ramathaïm Zophim (1 Sam. i. 1, with 1 Chr. vi. 26-35), or Ramah of the Zuphites, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, especially one not far from it, Ramah of Benjamin, six or seven miles north of Jerusalem. Here Saul, thinking they had gone far enough in their fruitless search, and beginning to feel anxious on his father's account, proposed to return; but as they were so near the residence of Samuel, they resolved first to visit the seer and consult him in the matter. That there was a place called Ramah, or Ramatha, in this d Shalisha is generally supposed to lie around Bethshalish or Baalshalisha, in the tribe of Ephraim, which Jerome says lay 15 miles north of Lydda, and Shalem is thought to be Shaalbim in the tribe of Dan, about 20 miles south of Lydda, as if the case would require such an extensive search. This is not to be supposed; neither can we see how, after reaching this distant point, he could pass next through the land of the Benjamites.' We therefore prefer, as more in keeping with the case, a circuit nearer home. • The term has no relation whatever to Shelam D at Shechem, or Jerusalem, which signifies 'peace,' but with which it has been often confounded. VOI. VI.---NO. XII. 2 E quarter f quarter there can be no doubt, from the testimony of Josephus and the 1st book of Maccabees (1 Macc. xi. 34). In both of these we are informed that king Demetrius, in order to gain the favour of Jonathan, separated three prefectures Apherima, Remathem, and Lydda, from the province of Samaria, and annexed them to that of Judea. Bethel was always considered the boundary between these two provinces; so that Remathem, or Ramatha as Josephus calls it, lay on the north of Bethel, and near to the ancient border of Benjamin. Apherima or Ephraim has been identified by Dr. Robinson with the remarkable eminence et Taiyibeh, about four miles north-east of Bethel, and Lydda in the western plain at the base of Mount Ephraim, is well known so that Remathem, or, as the Septuagint has it, Aramathaim, must have lain somewhere between these two points upon Mount Ephraim (1 Sam. i. 1). That it was out of Benjamin and therefore in Ephraim is clear from what was intimated by the Lord to Samuel the day before Saul's arrival: To-morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of Benjamin, him shalt thou anoint,' etc. (1 Sam. ix. 16), and from the incidents of Saul's return, as we shall by and bye see, it must have been situated somewhere about the site of the present 'Ain Yebrud, a few miles north of Bethel. In reading the whole narrative of Saul's wanderings we find our minds necessarily drawn in this direction, and had the sepulchre of Rachel been only between this and Gibeah, we are persuaded, there never would have been any difficulty in the case. As it is not, however, we now proceed to our solution of the problem. The sepulchre of Rachel stands to this day about a mile from Bethlehem, on the way to Jerusalem, and we know of no reason to disturb the tradition that has always assigned it to this spot. In the Scripture account of the locality it is said to be but a little way from Ephrata which is Bethlehem,' and the writer adds that Jacob set a pillar upon her grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day' (Gen. xxxv. 16, and xlviii. 7). Josephus says, 'it was over against Ephrata." It is afterwards mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim in a.d. 333, and also by Jerome in the same century. The present structure is that of a plain Mohammedan wely. The Turks have generally enclosed the real or supposed sepulchres of the Old Testament characters in some building or other, having as great a veneration for them as Jews or Christians. That which covers the tomb of Jacob's favourite wife is a small square erection of a very humble descrip8 Athenæum, May, 1845. h1 Sam., passim. This must have been the Arimathea of the New Testament. i Antiq. I. xxi. 3. f Antiq. XIII. iv. 9. tion surmounted by a dome, resembling the common tombs of sheikhs and saints. Mr. Buckingham gives the following particular description of it-'We entered it on the south side by an aperture, through which it was difficult to crawl, as it has no doorway, and found in the inside a square mass of masonry in the centre, built up from the floor nearly to the roof, and of such a size as to leave barely a passage for walking round it. It is plastered on the outer surface with white stucco, and is sufficiently large and high to enclose within it any ancient pillar that might have been found on the grave of Rachel.' k We make these statements to show that there can be no reason to doubt that the present monument, which answers so well to the Scripture account of it, and has been preserved by an unbroken chain of tradition, marks the spot where the beautiful mother of Israel sleeps. But how, it is asked, could the sepulchre of Rachel, according to this view, by any possibility lie in the way of Saul on his return from Ramah to Gibeah? We reply, it manifestly could not. No imaginable circuit could bring him so far out of his way as this. From Bethel to the sepulchre near Bethlehem cannot be less than sixteen miles, while Gibeah lies about mid-way between. Had Ramah been about Bethlehem, or anywhere on the south side of the tomb, the course of Saul would naturally have led past it; but Ramah is in Mount Ephraim, and it is clear, on the slightest inspection of the map, that no position for it whatever in Mount Ephraim-let that name be carried as far south as it possibly can-could require the traveller to pass the tomb of Rachel on his way from it to Gibeah. We are constrained, then, by the physical features of the country, to conclude that the route of Saul neither lay in this direction nor came near this spot. In these circumstances it remains that we must admit a fault somewhere in the account, and from the following considerations we are disposed to believe that it is simply in the name given to the sepulchre. As it was the first place to which Saul came after leaving Samuel, it evidently was not far from Ramah. Now, close under Bethel, and just on the way that Saul must have taken, Jacob, on his return from Padan Aram, had buried Deborah, the nurse of Rebekeh, under an oak, which, on account of the extraordinary grief of the occasion, was called 'Allon Bachuth,' or the oak of weeping (Gen. xxxv. 8). This was the tomb which we think Saul was to pass. Instead, therefore, of Samuel's account, apoy near to the sepulchre of Rachel,' we conceive the reading ought to have been 7 napay near to the sepulchre of Deborah.' It is in the highest degree probable that k Pictorial Bible, in loco. the |